ABOUT ANANDA

Ananda Bena-Weber is a versatile artist who performs throughout the world in the areas of theater, dance, film, television, and commercials. She is an accomplished voice over artist and creates her own finished-product spots in her home studio. Ananda provides workshops and training bringing dancers and actors together to create work that is a conversation, exchange, and a synthesis of natures. She is an adjunct professor at Marymount Manhattan College, and a teaching artist for the Dance Theater of Harlem.

“I believe very strongly in the importance of art in today’s society –especially the classical arts. The prevalence of the materialism, mechanism, instant gratification, and emptiness (perhaps the root cause) that abound in consumer society can isolate the individual soul and impoverish the imagination. As we aspire toward a higher quality of art, we return to ourselves. The ethos of the classical arts demands that we, as human beings, examine our place in the natural world. We strive to 'hold the mirror up to nature' and in doing so, are revived and enriched by the exquisite grace that we suddenly discover all around. I firmly believe that any true and honest effort toward that end, however small, is hugely important and life-affirming. I am grateful to everyone who engages in such an effort. They are helping to make our world a more luminous, more compassionate, more joyful place.”